Intel officially unveiled Cannon Lake Z390 chipset

The next Intel Z390 chipset has been rumored for some time, now they officially announce the chip. Basically the Z390 also has features like the Z370 but has additional features inherent on cheaper chips.

On the official website, Intel briefly describes the Z390's specifications, including the ability to support Wireless-AC 802.11ac, Bluetooth 5 and 2nd generation USB 3.1 - all not on the current Z370 chip. However, it does not appear that there are many supported PCIe or memory ports.

Other parameters as well as on Z370 like CPU overclocking capability with compatible K-line chips, RAID and Optane Memory.

Unfortunately, Intel did not say which Z390 will support the socket. Previously there were rumors that the chip would support both existing Coffee Lake and Cannon Lake.

The description of the Z390 chip is also too focused on the ability to support Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 (overclocking) and Intel Hyper-Threading Technology (hyper-threading). These features are already available on Coffee Lake chips.

Z390 will have features that Z370 lacks

When Intel launched the 8th generation Core CPU last October, only Z370 was the motherboard using this CPU core. While it works well with high-end processors such as the Core i7-8700K Coffee Lake, for example, it doesn't make sense to put Core i3 or i5 into expensive chipsets like the Z370.

In April, Intel unexpectedly released 300 series of motherboards, but surprisingly, low-cost chipsets like the H30, B360 or H310 have high-end features that the Z370 doesn't have.

The Z390 motherboard will surpass the Z370, becoming a true high-end chipset in Intel's 8th generation CPU line. Intel did not release the release time, but according to information leaked by AMD and Intel CPU routes that the Bluechip distributor has, the Z390 will probably be available at Computex in June.

See more:

1. Intel postponed the release of Cannon Lake 10nm chip
2. Intel allows virus scans on GPUs to run faster and improve battery life
3. Learn about clock speed: Base Clock and Boost Speed